Symbian Toys

The FCC has just given its nod of approval to the upcoming Nokia N85, which means we ought to be able to see it hit retail stores sometime in the near future. The N85 is strangely enough, the successor to the N96 despite bearing different numbered prefixes. Just to recap what the N85 offers, it comes with :-

* 5 megapixel camera
* Symbian S60 3rd Edition
* Wi-Fi connectivity
* Integrated GPS navigation
* Photo-geotagging
* Quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900
* Tri-band WCDMA 850/1900/2100

I wonder how much this will cost - hopefully not too much more compared to the N96.

Speculations about Microsoft’s iPhone beater are about as old as the iPhone itself. Rumors that both Microsoft and Nokia are worried about Apple’s advances aren’t dying down and if we believe the latest wave of speculations then both companies could be working together to prevent Apple from repeating even a fraction of the success the company had with the iPod. Microsoft's effort to integrate Zune Marketplace content with Windows Mobile and Nokia handsets is seen as part of this effort.

Microsoft remained conspicuously mum on the possibility of a Zune phone, neither confirming nor denying Zune phone speculations. Whenever media presses Microsoft executives on the matter, the same answer is given: Microsoft is more than happy with its position in the mobile phone space. In addition a Zune phone may make no sense at all, given Microsoft’s less than impressive Zune music player and the general consensus that Microsoft might remove the device from the market soon. There could be room for a new Zune device, but the brand name needs to be cleaned up.

A Zune phone remains only a rumor at this point but there are signs that Microsoft will at least leverage the Zune brand and Zune Marketplace content to slow down the iPhone.

According to a report published by UK tech site Electric Pig, the software giant is now teaming up with Nokia to launch an "all out assault" on Apple, while there is still time. The report cites an unverified "well placed source within Microsoft" that revealed details behind Microsoft-Nokia partnership to the Zunescene web site. The Zune team is reportedly working with Nokia to integrate the Zune Marketplace with Nokia smartphones. This should not come as s surprise as most industry watchers have been repeatedly calling Microsoft to expand the Zune Marketplace content (music, movies, TV series, etc.) to Windows Mobile platform, PCs, Xbox, etc. It is unknown at this time if the Nokia Music Store and the Zune Marketplace will merge or will coexist.

The non-exclusive deal appears to be limited to content delivery only at this point. However, a Zune phone would be a conclusive move. Yes, we are speculating but you must admit that such a device may make sense. Microsoft already knows how not to create a MP3 player, how not to create a Zune cellphone (see Motorola Rokr) and how a successful Zune cellphone could look like (iPhone). The software giant first partnered with Nokia two years ago to bring its online services to Nokia handsets (such as Windows Live search, Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail.) It was a limited collaboration and it never reached the operating system realm.

Microsoft and Nokia have the same rival to battle. Other handset vendors have failed to crank out iPhone killers or have delayed potential competitors. However, the combined resources of Microsoft and Nokia present an interesting opportunity to challenge Apple in a highly profitable market segment.

At the moment, Microsoft seems to be content with expanding the Zune brand and the Zune Marketplace content into the Windows Mobile space and Nokia mobile phones. Most analysts do not believe that Microsoft will make a Zune mobile phone at this time. "The business model of Windows Mobile is totally different than Zune," Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg wrote in his blog. "Zune worked to some extent since the technology Microsoft was licensing wasn't getting them anywhere. As it was, hardware partners were taken aback by Microsoft's actions but were still comfortable licensing."

According to the analyst, Microsoft now has 20 million Windows Mobile licenses out there and is "gaining traction." It also has "a great stream of partners" that make more and more Windows Mobile-powered phones for business and personal use, so Microsoft's entrance into the handset hardware business would potentially affect this scenario in a negative way. "Windows Mobile is a core platform and OS. No one has ever been successful licensing technology platforms to others and then competing with a device of their own. Apple failed (twice), Palm and Nokia all tried it and it just can't be done," Gartenberg wrote.
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News of an official release date for the UK and a new firmware is revealed for the upcoming N96!

Pocket-lint has the news that Nokia have announced a release date for the UK. The device will land in stores on 1st October!!!

The device will be available through a range of operators and retailers - 3, Carphone Warehouse, Orange, Phones 4 U, T-Mobile and Vodafone. This is great news that it won’t be limited to one carrier ‘exclusively’ on its release.

For those invited to private parties launch in New York and Chicago last Thursday, probably, you have been playing with his new shiny U.S. E71 throughout the weekend. For everyone else, today is the day. The americas version of the team - which includes 850/900/1800/1900 GSM 850/1900 and HSDPA support - is finally for sale to the general public through a variety of retailers. Now, the only problems are Sneaking away from the office early, finding a warehouse with material and reach approximately U.S. $ 500.

The number of OSes that can be run on N810 Internet Tablets just grows and grows. Now it's time for MS Windows family. I hope you still remeber Windows 3.1. The trick to run it on NIT is to use DOSBOX utility - x86 PC emulator (the instructions may be found e.g. here or on Internet Tablet Talk forums). What's more interesting, there's a proof that you may also run Windows 95 this way, but don't expect that it will start and work smoothly (you really need to be patient). Thanks to very active Internet Tablet community, you can also have MAC on MIT by using the Basilisk II Macintosh emulator (list of Macintosh Software that can be run on a NIT and instructions).

Purists would extend the list of working OSes by adding Android, Ubuntu and numerous emulators (all ported to maemo) like Amiga 68k - UAE, Apple II - Winapple, Commodore 64 - Frodo, Palm OS - Access GarnetVM, TI-89 Calculator - TiEmu 2 (just to mention the most interesting ones). Can you do this all on iPhone?

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Miyaliu from Digi QQ exposes plenty of pictures of the Nokia 5800 Tube, the upcoming touchscreen S60 Nokia phone which we all have seen briefly on the Dark Knight movie. 3.2 inches screen size with 640×360 resolution sounds good to me.

Here are the specs according to Digi QQ:

• Measurements: 111 × 52 × 14.5 mm, and weighs only 104 grams.
• 16 million color TFT LCD
• 640 × 360 pixel resolution
• 16:9 display mode
• Fifth edition of Symbian S60.
• finger touch operation will provide vibration feedback function.
• 3.2 megapixel Carl Zeiss optical lens with autofocus
• Dual LED flash
• Built-in GPS
• 140 MB RAM
• GSM / GPRS / EDGE / WCDMA / HSDPA / WLAN wireless networking and Bluetooth technology.
• 3.5 mm Headset interface
• TV-out interface
• BL-5J 1150mah Battery

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What happens to your old mobile phone after you upgrade to a new model? Ever wondered what to do with your old mobile phone? Recycle It! Nokia has launched an Integrated Nokia Kiosk (INK), its first automated recycling and care kiosk in Malaysia in an effort to promote environmental initiatives in the mobile industry. The kiosks will be rolled out in four locations – Nokia Concept Store at The Gardens, Nokia Store at The Curve, Nokia Store at Suria KLCC and Giant Hypermarket at Bandar Puchong Kinrara. The Kiosk are easy to use. You just need to follow the instructions on the touchscreen. It accepts any brand of mobile phones, batteries, phone covers, travel chargers and accessories. For every phone recycled, the company will donate a tree dedicated to the person who recycled the phone. After dropping off your old phones for recycling, customers will be contacted with instructions on how to view the tree via Google Earth.

Remember the rumoured Nokia N85 that was leaked not so long ago!? Well earlier today a User Agent Profile posted by Nokia confirmed the devices existence and revealed its true specifications!

First impressions, i’m a little disappointed. Nothing about it so far brings anything new to the portfolio and seems to be a midrange N96.

The release of this information suggests that the device should be announced relatively soon!!!

Read on for more details and a link to the profile!!!

The N85 carries on with the design language introduced by the N81 and followed with the N78 and N96 and still makes use of a QVGA 240 x 320 pixel screen. What I found surprising is that Nokia have decided to use a 3.2 megapixel camera. From the pictures that were leaked the N85 will have a dual LED flash (much like the N96) and a camera shutter to protect the lens.

The device will run on Symbian S60 Feature Pack 2 and features the usual connectivity options - GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, Wifi and HSDPA, but no signs of GPS this time…

Overall, as I mentioned in the introduction to this post, the device seems to be a midrange N96 aimed at the mass market. Even though no there is nothing new included in the specs of the N85, it will be interesting to see how well the device performs.

Heres a link to the profile so you can view the full specification list for yourself!

http://nds1.nds.nokia.com/uaprof/NN85-1r100.xml

Could the N85 be what the N81 should have been, have the N-Gage application preloaded and be the gaming device to launch the N-Gage service publically to the masses???

The dual slide form factor could easily cater for dedicated gaming keys as well (just like the N96).

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So apparently a healthy exchange of cash and a captive audience glued to one of the biggest flicks of the year are all it takes to land early dibs on Nokia's elusive Tube. The Tube - which will likely be branded either XpressMusic or XpressMedia and carry model number 5800 - represents Nokia's first serious foray into the wide world of touchscreen smartphones (don't even try to pull the Series 90 card, people), so there's quite a bit of buzz building around it. Just like there's lots of buzz aroudn this new Batman joint. Coincidence? We think not!
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It's being held on the main Nokia Island ("Nokia," funnily enough) and runs from 7pm GMT (Noon in SL, 8pm in the UK).

The panel is for all aspiring Second Life entrepreneurs, those already in business, and anyone interested in learning the down-and-dirty on how business really operates within the metaverse. The event will be held as an informal, moderated panel discussion with direct audience Q&A

• Hydra Shaftoe (host) - Developer, Community, Events, and project manager (USA)
• Rissa Maidstone - (World2Worlds, USA)
• Malburns Writer - (Metaverse Infohub, England)
• Uchi Desmoulins - (Avatar Maker, USA)
• Chriistopher Carter - (Glued Designs, USA)
• Slim Warrior (Virtual worlds music promoter, England)
• Draxtor Despres (Film maker, draxtor.com, Germany)
• Digistar Brouwer (Nokia, Finland)
• John Zhaoying (Ziff Davis Enterprise, USA)

Goldstriker has a new look for E71. This a stunning exclusive mobile phone brilliantly struck with 24ct gold. If you are constantly on the move this mobile work hourse certainly has the edge. You can buy it on Goldstriker website for £549.95

Nokia Beta Labs today unveiled Nokia Chat - a brand new location based chatting application for your S60 device. You can send one-to-one messages and pin point your location through Nokia Maps (and you can select where you want to be published as your location). You can also record and send voice messages to your friends. Go, grab it here - http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/chat

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The new version of Nokia software updater comes with Vista support. This is from thier news site:

We are pleased to announce that the Nokia Software Updater once more supports Microsoft Vista.

We are very sorry that many of you have been unable to update your devices, and we are sorry that you have had to wait so long. Thank you very much to everyone who gave feedback on the Beta release.

The latest version of Nokia Software Updater (1.4.49) is now available from www.nokia.com/softwareupdates or your local Nokia support pages.

Warm regards
The Nokia Software Updater team.

Hackers have posted an installer that streamlines the porting of Google's Android software onto Nokia's Linux-based N810 and N800 Internet Tablets. Android has yet to appear on a cell-phone development platform, so the installer could play a key role in expanding Android development.

Download instructions and links for the Android-to-Nokia N810/N800 installer should be available here. Further coverage of the installer can be found on eWEEK, here.

Nice video made by Mobiletech Addicts of HTC Diamond video calling, so watch the video if you want to see how video calling looks on Diamond.

You'd blind half the room when you whip out this little beauty - the diamond encrusted Nokia N95 from Continental Mobiles.

The handset features a smooth Sterling silver front panel that has been festooned with 4.42 carat of brilliant-cut, VS1 quality, naturally mined diamonds.

And it's only £10,000. We'll take two.

Nokia has quietly launched its Files on Ovi service in beta a few days ago. Resulting from its purchase of Avvenu last year, Files on Ovi from Nokia uses a desktop Connector application to allow access to files on your home computer securely from any internet-connected device.

Files on Ovi features a mobile site that allows users to view and download files from a home computer onto any mobile phone. Users can also share files with friends easily through Files on Ovi, with the ability to set a time limit on how long those shared files are available.

Files on Ovi also offers Anytime Files, with online storage of 10GB or 30GB, each with a monthly subscription fee. When users sign up for Files on Ovi, they get 60 days free of 10GB storage. Anytime Files are available even if the desktop connector software is not running, making it perfect for important documents and other files.

The guys over at Talk About Nseries have posted a few unboxing pictures of Nokia 500. You can find the unboxing pictures and the initial thoughts here

The Nokia 500 box contain:

• Nokia 500 Auto Nav
• Car Mount
• Nokia DC-1001 microUSB Car Charger
• SD with Europe Maps (varies by country)
• Soft Carry Pouch
• A CD containing backups of the maps and a digital version of the user guide

Version 20.0.056 brings Flash Lite 3 and Demand Paging, what we’ve seen already on the N82 or N95. More over, it has Feature Pack 2 like transition making going through the menu even more ‘’stylish”. Flash Lite 3 allows watching flash videos, ala YouTube, directly in the internetbrowser and supports also the Web Run Time Widget. Take a look at the video to see how the new transition look like.

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